Karim Sadjadpour

They're worried that President Trump could attack Iran, and then a week or two later his attentions are diverted back to whether it's Venezuela or Taiwan or another issue.

and they're left naked and vulnerable, and they don't have the luxury of being many thousands of miles away from Iran.

Now, you mentioned earlier, and people can look online at this map of this incredible American buildup right now in the Middle East.

If you talk to people at the Pentagon, they will tell you that most of that buildup is for defensive purposes.

It's not that we're going to unleash all of that firepower against Iran.

That buildup is there

in great part to protect our allies, protect our bases against the Iranian retaliation.

But the reality is that those forces aren't going to be able to remain in the Middle East forever

And there's no guarantee that any U.S.

military action will topple the regime in Iran.

And so that is a risk that I think President Trump and vast majority of Iranians are prepared to live with.

They're prepared to roll the dice in that way.

Those Gulf countries have a lot more to lose.

I mean, there's actually a Persian expression that corroborates that, which is if you have a wildcat trapped in a room, you need to leave a door open to allow it to go out.

And again, I actually do think that President Trump and his top advisors on this issue, if they could push a button, they would like to see a diplomatic outcome.

They would like

us not to have to go to war.

The challenge at the moment is I don't see a Venn diagram in which American demands and Iranian concessions currently intersect.

Because what we're demanding from Iran, not to get too technical, but we're demanding that they don't enrich any uranium.

something that they insist on.